5815 replies to this topic

[Nparker]

I simply do not see how any business can be considered "legitimate" if it is providing an illegal product or service. If I were to set up a murder-for-hire business* (no one actually killed on the premises of course), but remit taxes/payroll etc. would I be treated the same way as the CoV dispensaries? 

* I wouldn't apply for a business license, for although there might be fines levied against me, there wouldn't be any real enforcement

[Matt R.]

So they're not being run as legitimate businesses.
 
A legitimate business provides a product or service that it was authorized to provide and various institutions (i.e. banks, municipalities) were told it providers in order to qualify for their services or support (i.e. when you incorporate a company, apply for a name, register a bank account, apply for a business license, etc., you identify what it is you do).

Apparently you don't.

Matt.

[Matt R.]

My dad ran a "gentlemans club" off and on for a while. On paper, it was legitimate. Behind closed doors some of the activities were not so much.

As far as anyone was concerned it was just a social club.

It appears that a business can be both, at once.

Matt.

[Mike K.]

It can't. Eventually the law and legislation catches up and forces the closure of such a business.

 

The marijuana dispensary industry is a grey area, hence the lack of enforcement by the authorities in certain jurisdictions. And no business operating as such, unless it is licensed as a marijuana dispensary explicitly, is operating as a legitimate business if it pretends to something else on paper or to qualify for something as basic as a business bank account and a business license.

[Matt R.]

I think you're being too literal.

Matt.

[todd]

I think the point Matt was trying to make is the employees might have some legal standing.

[Nparker]

I think the point Matt was trying to make is the employees might have some legal standing.

Why? It's no secret that pot shops are illegal. The employees are just as complicit in breaking the law as the proprietors. 

[todd]

Why? It's no secret that pot shops are illegal. The employees are just as complicit in breaking the law as the proprietors. 

 

Are you a judge Nparker?

[HB]

There was a store on Johnson Street called Bill's Spot.

It had a coffee counter in it and they sold cigarettes and some Cokes. There was basically nothing else in teh place. In teh back there was a curtain hanging over a door.

Guys came and went into the store straight to the back behind the curtain.

 

It was a bookies den and it was there for years not once did it ever get busted because the cops never new about what went on inside .

 

Later at night CFAX was on in many homes via transistor radios...they all listened to the Horse races.

The next morning Bills Spot was busy again.

I was in there many times and new the going ons because I was trusted and related to one of the dudes there.

 

A Very good friend of mine by the name of (Steve) Brodie introduced me to the game

 

 

Just saying there are lots and lots of illegal activities taking place in and around store fronts that go unnoticed and undetected

[Nparker]

...there are lots and lots of illegal activities taking place in and around store fronts that go unnoticed and undetected

And then there are pot shops; 100% illegal according to current federal laws. They are both noticed and detected and only exist because a majority out of 9 people told local law enforcement to turn a blind eye.

[todd]

^ I think you're referring to the elected officials, if not they were likely appointed by one.

Edited by todd, 22 July 2017 - 06:42 PM.

[Matt R.]

Yes, the employees of these corporations have employment rights like most other people. I am not a lawyer.

Matt.

[HB]

And then there are pot shops; 100% illegal according to current federal laws. They are both noticed and detected and only exist because a majority out of 9 people told local law enforcement to turn a blind eye.

The are legal becaus ethe precedent has been set. The City allows them and has taken no stance . They turn a blind eye.

 

Its like if someone lends you their car ..1 Year later you steal that same car and get caught.

You can not be charged with theft because you were lent the car in the.past and that is a valid defense and no conviction will be had if charged with theft.

 

 

Pot shops ...illegal ...People open them ...city does nothing to prevent the operation of said establishment...charges never laid because teh citu allowed it..biggest thing they can do is lay a fine for a contravention of a city law perhaps

[Nparker]

The are legal because the precedent has been set. The City allows them and has taken no stance...

That might make them "tolerable" or even "acceptable" but it doesn't change federal laws and doesn't make them legal.

[HB]

note to self....

 

 

do not respond because you run the risk of being accused of going back and forth on the is subject

If the VV forum board majority think pot shops are bad then it must be

no one is to suggest otherwise or have a differing opinion

 

 

repeat over and over again

[Mike K.]

The word legal is pretty well defined. Officialdom turning a blind eye to an activity that is illegal does not make the activity suddenly legal.

 

It is illegal to speed in BC. When caught, some cops let you off with a warning, but speeding remains illegal. That's about as simple of an example as one can give.

[Mattjvd]

The are legal becaus ethe precedent has been set. The City allows them and has taken no stance . They turn a blind eye.

Its like if someone lends you their car ..1 Year later you steal that same car and get caught.
You can not be charged with theft because you were lent the car in the.past and that is a valid defense and no conviction will be had if charged with theft.


Pot shops ...illegal ...People open them ...city does nothing to prevent the operation of said establishment...charges never laid because teh citu allowed it..biggest thing they can do is lay a fine for a contravention of a city law perhaps

That is completely false. Tort law says invitations are time/event sensitive.

[HB]

Then why are the police not shutting them down their job is to uphold teh law...also why is crown counsel not prosecuting any of these store operators

[Mattjvd]

Then why are the police not shutting them down their job is to uphold teh law...also why is crown counsel not prosecuting any of these store operators

Sorry, I could have been more clear. My response was strictly referring to the car borrowing/stealing example.

[Nparker]

Then why are the police not shutting them down their job is to uphold teh law...also why is crown counsel not prosecuting any of these store operators

Here's a "hypothetical" answer: For political/sociological reasons CoV police have been directed by their board co-chair not to investigate or arrest the operators of illegal storefront pot shops; without evidence or arrests, charges cannot be laid by the Crown.